


Silver Veins

by graspthesanity



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: F/M, Happy Fun, It's not moody for once, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:46:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24797152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graspthesanity/pseuds/graspthesanity
Summary: No reason to turn down two bodyguards.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife/Reno, Aerith Gainsborough/Reno, Reno/Cloud Strife
Kudos: 12





	Silver Veins

It’s always just a check.

Until Shinra will need her.

I remember when the checks weren’t needed I’d still stroll around while looking for potential SOLDIERs, at least that’s what I told myself. It would take me some courage before I got cocky, but I would check on her, a bit baffled when she caught me outside her church once.

Around 6 months ago I offered her a drink, which surprised her. I guess she didn’t get that offered often. But then who was I kidding, she didn’t get that offered ever since… A long while.

I tried to clear my head. I could’ve bought her a whole restaurant in the slums, but everything you do causes attention. She looked at me from head to toe.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I know what I’m doing.” I smiled briefly at her. It was funny how she called me the Devil’s Advocate and a Bodyguard mockingly at the same time. For a brief second the silence got too awkward so we turned around and she brought me some clothes into change to, so that I wouldn’t attract attention. I’d stretch them, because they’d be a tad small. Aerith would insist on make up for my scars, but I just shook my head.

And so we went. Something to think about before falling asleep, I pondered. Been a while, since I even had something remotely like that. I was clumsy, but I knew how to talk… To those who lived upstairs, not too much when it came to the slums.

People gossiped there and below here, so it shouldn’t have been too hard to recall the latest gossip I’d hear from an officer about some mutant cats walking around, according to a rumour started by a kid. The conversations were superficial, but they had some warmth around them… Like when I’d think of her. I didn’t do anything rash, I wouldn’t take her to my home or to hers. We just… talked. Joked, gossiped, drank beer, ate take away in the back of the church.

I always wanted to ask her for the flowers, to take home, but she never offered… And I told myself that I still see them daily. I watched her up close. Her freckles and green eyes. Of course she was the main flower, the main lily… Rude kept quiet, once our hook-ups went a bit too… silent. It wasn’t the first time, he knew that whenever someone would catch my eye, I’d slowly stop and then come mumbling about whoever I was interested in. It wasn’t often that girls were of interest, but still some came and went. But the warmth for Aerith stayed as I’d keep going to visit her. Now our silences were longer, each of us trying to find a missing puzzle piece on the floor, even if it was in plain sight. It was as if one of us kicked it below a rug, just to stretch the time spent together when I was without officers, which was brief in the evenings.

Once I fell asleep as we chatted, we had blankets which were dusty from the attic. She woke me up the next morning, as I screeched from the sudden soft voice in my ear.

“We both fell asleep?” I assumed sleepily, saying it, as I slowly opened my eyes and her face was over my own, I slowly swallowed and put a hand to her face. I thought she’d flinch, but she didn’t.

We kissed for quite a while. Lips sleepy and hungry for the other, tongues making my morning livelier. Then we both leaned away, as I whistled. Aerith gave out a small laugh and fixed her ribbon. It seemed fine.

It all seemed like an ending thread, a wool ball, which would end, as soon as the other end would slip past our fingers, the fragile lifeline of faith. Could we even believe in each other, when in such places like Midgar we always fought for ourselves and corporations meant nothing when it came down to one’s own teeth. But I wanted to believe in love, in dreaming of her before I’d fall asleep. I wanted to atone sometimes… Sometimes I felt like I was doing something wrong, but churches were bygones even by the time I was born. Who even prayed these days?

I don’t think we’ve grown, at all.

She’s just as beautiful as she is when I met her, cautious, but her kiss was something I had never expected, it felt like a shy middle school note passed around, nearly torn and all worn by its corners… I like you, sort of thing. Only when you’re an adult, you’re not as scared anymore.

When do we reach out to the past to understand who we are now?

Next time I go for the church in the day, I have to be followed by other officers, reminding myself that she is a job too. An Ancient, a Cetra and she’ll be consumed by Shinra once and forever. She’s talking to someone else, I hear a voice. Of course, the day would come, when she’d try to cut the lines herself. What good would I do? Involving herself further with Shinra meant her death and compliance. I couldn’t see her doing it, even if she danced with death instead. A slow dull ache comes from my chest, but I try to play it cool, swallowing everything I wondered of today.

His voice is something very distantly familiar, but then… I have a nose for these things. Only I won’t pinpoint things right away.

“So, got a friend?” I say and I shoo off the officers. They wouldn’t mind a smoke anyway. I see his mako eyes, spike blonde hair and there’s something about him. As if he’s her ex, but her eyes say the opposite as she watches him between me and her. She approaches me slowly, the man in the soldier uniform following along, out of some bond, he can’t quite explain yet.

“What, is it against Shinra to get friends now, Reno?” She leans in towards me and I can see mako eyes following me. I smirk and look at them both, making a photo frame out of my fingers and hands.

“Oh, please.” The soldier uniform says, with a giant sword, too.

“I’m just saying… don’t get too caught up with certain bachelors, that’s all. But I guess the hots for Shina boys is reasonable.” I shrug, smirking.

“You’re one to talk.” I add.

“I’ve seen the way you look at Rude.”

“Shocking. Isn’t it?”

“Ah hah! I knew you were queer.”

“Amazing is that my defining trait now?”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant, I’m just saying maybe you should be open about it.”

“Who says we haven’t fucked?” I try to hide my break in the middle of the sentence, which causes Soldier uniform to get all suspicious of my familiarity with Aerith, rather than confusion.

Aerith, the flower girl, ponders for a brief while. Bobbing her head from side to side, braid following her.

“Am I allowed to be jealous?” She looks at the other guy, who looks dazed.

“Not my problem.” He says coldly.

“Clooooooouuuud.” She whines mockingly.

“Lovely name for… such an outstanding talker.”

“Ohhhh, I know, cute and fluffy.” Aerith motions a fluffy cloud with her hands and we both laugh in unison.

“Stop.” Cloud says embarrassed.

“More like you fall through it and turn into a pizza from the impact.” I stifle a laughter. I look at the absurdity of it all, Aerith with this guy who has a SOLDIER uniform who left or something, me the Turk and the queen of flowers herself.

“Yeah, he’s uptight…” She frowns lightly, looking at him.

“So how come he caught your eye?”

“What, you want him too, Reno?”

“Aerith, it’s about you. You and him. Flower colour hair and you.” I say motioning several times to Aerith and Cloud.

“Yeah, love triangles are no fun.” Aerith notes, as Cloud scoffs, looking away and crossing his arms.

“You’re always in your world.” He notes to me and her. “There is no love triangle… Just a direct line, that is, if you feel that way- Look, keep me outta this. Mouth zipped.”

Cloud pretends hard to be annoyed and bored with our chatter, so I bite my lower lip, watching his intrigued mako eyes looking away. He’s got a good build, even though on the skinny side and I can see what Aerith sees in him. We stand in an awkward silence. I can’t even kiss Aerith briefly or take her somewhere… Unless Cloud tags along. I can’t surely go up the plate to my place, where I would sneak Aerith occasionally once she could stand me and I took a liking of her. She’d complain about my wardrobe being the same suits and a few holiday outfits which were worn never these days.

Aerith steps in front of me and clearly way too close. I don’t step back, she leans even closer.

“Admiring my bodyguard?”

“He’s marvellous, Aerith.” I smirk and look away from her.

“He’s not into me yet, so you can be calm, Reno.”

Cloud’s silence is a bit too loud. He doesn’t refuse the statement, seems like he’s trying it on and rolling it around his tongue, but me and Aerith start a brief convo about her flowers and how Cloud trampled them. He just watches us, as she retells how he fell from the heavens into the flower bed.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written a light story in a very long while, at least it feels like! And I love all of them to bits and I've been breathing, sleeping, living this story when I'm not writing it! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
